For the Love of Books, and Celebrate the Small Things

Remember my Literature Rant on Monday? This is kind of part two, and the some of the reason for my feelings on the matter.

I love to read a variety of books, from "easy" to "challenging," and I don't think any particular type is better than another.

I think that reading is a gift that shouldn't be lost in an attempt to be more "literary."

The sad thing that I see happening in this world isn't that "people don't read enough classic literature anymore," or that "people only read for entertainment." The sad thing I see is kids labeled and told they can't read higher or lower than a certain reading level. Or kids that I see who have been told they "should" read a certain type of book that they don't like . . . and then guess what? They stop reading, entirely.

When I met my husband, he didn't read any fiction. He only read technical manuals and textbooks. He thought all fiction was boring and he strongly disliked reading. He thought it was "cute" that I liked to read, but he didn't want to join me.

So, I started a campaign to turn him into a reader. I read him snippets of books out loud in the car. I told him how my favorite books were like my favorite movies. (He really likes movies.) I read him half of Ender's Game, and he finished it. I read him half of The Hobbit, and he finished it. I read him half of Watership Down and he finished it. 

When our girls were little, he read aloud to them, and had fun doing the voices. He told them stories. Then he wrote a children's book of stories that he made up with them. (It's on our bookshelf, but can't be found anywhere for sale - it's called The Adventures of Thumper and Brim)

He went from hating reading fiction to loving it.

I wish I could do that same for everyone I meet who dislikes reading . . . but what I really wish is that every kid and every adult could read for the love of it, and for the love of stories and books. I dream of a world where books are available for every person in every country, and libraries have to work hard to keep the books on their shelves because they're being checked out all the time.

Today I'm celebrating: books; books without labels. books that we know are the best because they are thought-provoking, fun, educational and entertaining all at the same time! They lift us up out of whatever circumstances we are in, and show us a new horizon.

Oh, and I would like to extend a personal thanks to all those librarians who have made my reading life rich!

How do you share  your love of reading with your friends and family?

And what are you celebrating today?

Good "Literature" - Warning: This is a Rant

Warning: This is a rant.

Second Warning: I wrote this post several months ago, set it back in my list of "to publish" stuff and then forgot about it. (I still feel the same way, but the heat came from a moment that I'll be explaining on Friday (Wed has a different planned post).


Literature comes from a Latin word that means "of letters". We've taken that word as a society and twisted it to mean, "books with snob value that lesser mortals will never enjoy."

Admittedly I like to read some classic literature, but I don't like to define certain books as "literary" and others as "fluff." I think those are dangerous and foolish definitions that ruin reading for everyone.

Why do we need to put up a boundary between "good" "literature" and "bad" "literature"?

Why can't we all just read books and enjoy them?

I happen to like Scifi books by Orson Scott Card; fantasy books by Tolkein, C.S. Lewis, and Jessica Day George; classic fiction by Charles Dickens; plays by Shakespeare; poetry by modern poets and classic poets. I like YA and MG books because they have amazingly well developed characters and usually hopeful endings.

I don't like books that expound on the misery of the human condition like Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, or Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. I wish I could take back the time in my life when I had to read those awful books for university English classes.

However, I still like Hamlet and Macbeth . . .which both show human suffering and misery, but end with justice. To Kill a Mockingbird is an awesome book that doesn't pull any punches when it comes to real, painful issues, but it has a bittersweet ending that I love.

There's nothing wrong with books that get into real life woes, I just don't like the ones that leave us with the feeling that hope is futile. A number of books on the "good" literature lists are books that start and end in the misery of the human condition with no hope offered. In those books, the characters don't appear to learn anything, and the story ends not far from where it begins even if decades have passed. And yet, because the prose writing is beautiful and some group of stuffy professors decided they liked it, it gets the seal of "quality" literature.

Given the choice between "life is misery and that's all there is" books and books that show character development and end with a brighter horizon, why does it surprise the literary snobs that so-called "literature" is being overlooked for "fluff" fiction?